ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
For the second day in a row, MARTA is under fire.
This time it's over the hiring process of the transit system's new CEO. Right now, officials with MARTA have narrowed down the search to two people, but the Transportation Equity Coalition isn't happy about how things are going.
To have a system like MARTA work smoothly the coalition said you have to have a good leader, which is why the upcoming decision is so critical.
State Sen. Vincent Fort from Atlanta led the coalition's charge against MARTA.
"This decision on who is going to be the next CEO is probably the most important decision to be made about MARTA's future in the last 40 years," Fort said.
It's perhaps most important to the thousands of people who use MARTA every day. That's why the coalition wanted the public to have a chance to meet each candidate in person, but that request was denied.
MARTA wouldn't go on camera but did release this statement from chairman of the board Frederick Daniels:
"As you know personnel decisions are a highly sensitive matter and generally not subject to state open meeting requirements for boards such as MARTA's. While I certainly appreciate the desire on the part of the coalition and community members to take an active role in this process, the MARTA Board believes strongly that fulfilling its duties and responsibilities in selecting the most qualified candidate, will produce the optimal result."
It was a decision that did not go over well with the coalition.
"The fact of the matter is any candidate who cannot be presented to the public before the fact has a problem. So we are concerned," Fort said.
So the group made a list of priorities they think represent the public and presented it to MARTA. Some are pretty obvious, yet crucial.
"What I'm looking for and what coalition is looking for is a CEO that values its customers," Fort said.
We tried to get an on-camera interview with MARTA to ask some tough questions about why they denied a public meet and greet with both candidates, but for the second day in a row they refused to interview with us.
We asked why they wouldn't go on camera and talk about these major issues and a spokesman told us, "We just don't want to."
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